Top 100: #33

Number 33: Spoon - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Album: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, 2007.
Added 12/22/07, 56 plays.



So here's another one of those with an upbeat melody and depressing lyrics. In this one, he's the one doing the leaving. The cherry bomb is fire, passion, excitement, explosion, and they just don't have that anymore. Time to call it off.

God, I just love those horns.

you might also like...
Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat
Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??

Do You Realize??

Dude, I saw Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and his wife at Coffee Slingers yesterday. Sweet!



Only love humans that deserve it. Don’t give it to those fuckers who will waste it.
-Wayne Coyne

Top 100: #34

Number 34: She & Him - Change Is Hard
Album: Volume One, 2008.
Added 12/17/07, 55 plays.



She & Him is a collaboration between M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, so you'd think, you know, the musician would write the music. You'd be wrong. Deschanel had been writing songs for years before approaching M. Ward, and in truth, they are just lovely. In style/homage to girl soul bands of the '60s, Volume One was a huge triumph, and I just love it. It's about love and loss, and I don't think it gets more poignant than on this track.

It's about being stupid and losing the one you love, and trying to pick up the pieces afterwards even after they already have. Beautiful.

you might also like...
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Belle and Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On

Top 100: #35

Number 35: Neko Case - This Tornado Loves You
Album: Middle Cyclone, 2009.
Added 5/21/07, 54 plays.



I've heard that Neko is referring to a literal tornado in this song, but I just can't believe that. It's just got to be a metaphor for how violent and destructive love can be. I love how the tornado killed people, destroyed buildings and train tracks, even carved their lover's name in the ground, all in a completely misguided effort to convince them of their sincerity. Love is hell.

Neko is one of the best singer songwriters of our generation. The melody rollicks along with the very active nature of the song, until she slows down to make a point - when the tornado checks in to see how they are, it calms down (an owl on the sill in the evening), until it finds it doesn't have them yet...

you might also like...
Cat Power - Could We
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Jenny Lewis - Carpetbaggers

Top 100: #36

Number 36: Psapp - Tricycle
Album: The Only Thing I Ever Wanted, 2006.
Added 5/21/07, 54 plays.



Ah, Psapp, the masters of toytronica. Is this a love song? A breakup song? Something in the middle. The last verse says it all:

You drag your feet
And drag us down
Don't want me around
To tire you out.

So... not exactly positive there. It's about the end of a relationship, almost at the breakup.

you might also like...
Adam Green - Novotel
Dawn Landes - Straight Lines
By Your Side - CocoRosie

Top 100: #37

Number 37: Tegan and Sara - Hop a Plane
Album: The Con, 2007.
Added 7/25/07, 54 plays.



Less than two minutes of some great pop punk rock. It's about moving across the country to get away from somebody, something that happened to somebody I used to know.

you might also like...
Metric - Gimme Sympathy
The Postal Service - Clark Gable
The Raveonettes - Dead Sound

Top 100: #38

Number 38: Soltero - Communist Love Song
Album: Science Will Figure You Out, 2001.
Added 5/21/07, 53 plays.



This is exactly what it says on the tin. An adorable little love song filled to the brim with Russian and Cold War references. I dig the simple acoustic guitar work and the sweet (and historical!) lyrics.

When someone says they'll be your Iron Curtain, how can you say no to that?

you might also like...
The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour
Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet
The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane

Top 100: #39

Number 39: Lavender Diamond - Oh No
Album: Imagine Our Love, 2007.
Added 8/12/08, 52 plays.



Looking at love from a distance; sometimes wistful, sometimes hopeful, going from optimistic to despairing and back again. Amazing what they can do when just repeating the same phrase over and over again.

Becky Stark absolutely makes this song.

you might also like...
Joanna Newsom - Does Not Suffice
Jenny Lewis - Trying My Best to Love You
Taken By Trees - To Lose Someone

Top 100: #40

Number 40: LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
Album: Sound of Silver, 2007.
Added 8/24/09, 52 plays.



This one is a little hard for me to talk about, so bear with me.

I guess you could call this my "favorite" breakup song, in that I find it most listenable and the lyrics most relatable. It's probably because of that that it's still one of the hardest to listen to. How ironic.

This is not like every breakup I've been through, but I have been through this. James hits the nail on the head in regards to the phone call, how you can kinda see it coming a little bit, but that doesn't help. You're devastated, but life keeps going on around you ("the coffee isn't even bitter," "the worst is all the lovely weather"). He'll get through it eventually, ("it keeps coming, 'til the day it stops"), but really, he's not taking this well, to say the least.

In short, this song was written with me in mind.

I wish that we could talk about it, but there: that's the problem.

you might also like(?)...
Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader
Figurine - IMpossible
Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

Top 100: #41

Number 41: Van Morrison - Real Real Gone
Album: Enlightenment, 1990.
Added 8/20/09, 52 plays.



The other day I mentioned that phenomenon of losing oneself to a relationship, and now that's not always a bad thing. Well, here Van throws himself into it and never looks back, and is absolutely jubilant about it. He's come to realize his dependency on others, and he's come to terms with it. When you invest your love, you invest your life.

I love the shoutouts. Sam Cooke is the most promenant, but the fadeout is awesome too. He's using the poetry of others to express how he feels, which I can relate to.

Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for a good brass section?


you might also like...
Mark Knopfler - Sailing to Philadelphia
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money

Top 100: #42

Number 42: Jens Lekman - Into Eternity
Album: Night Falls Over Kortedala, 2007.
Added 3/18/08, 50 plays.



Crazy love. Doomed love.

Jens is in that nebulous period during a breakup where they're still... not... something. He says it best when he compares his love with dry grass and a magnifying glass; something that will ignite and burn us all down. A disaster. Something that just can't last.

But it still feels good. You still want it.

I played this for a friend of mine yesterday, who immediately said it sounded like something out of a Disney movie. Maybe. This is one of those great songs I love with an upbeat melody and really depressing lyrics. But what, a guy can't play a recorder and not have it compared to Pocahontas?

you might also like...
Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
Beach House - Zebra
M. Ward - One Hundred Million Years

Top 100: #43

Number 43: Sera Cahoone - You're Not Broken
Album: Only As the Day Is Long, 2008.
Added 3/18/08, 50 plays.



I apologize for the people talking over her in the video above. Idiots! This is great music! Anyway, find it and download it, or you can stream it from NPR.

Stephen Thompson said it best when he called this song the musical equivalent of someone handing you a cup of cocoa and giving you a back rub after a long day. It provides gentle encouragement and comfort without the slightest hint of annoyance or anger, only her own sadness that her person is so worn down. With an amazing coda.

you might also like...
Blind Pilot - One Red Thread
The Cave Singers - Leap
Fruit Bats - Seaweed

Top 100: #44

Number 44: Amber Rubarth - You Will Love This Song
Album: New Green Lines, 2008.
Added 5/22/09, 49 plays.



Third breakup song in a row. Did you notice the name of the blog?

It's a song written for an ex. Like, explicitly, with little stories about days together, and how great those were, and how this song was written specifically to have things that he would like, and she wrote it in her underwear because she knew he would like it. Yeah. Pretty personal.

The last verse uses a magic show as a metaphor for the relationship in a really effective way - it cuts down to the core, when she admits that yes, she knew she was more into it than he was; she volunteered to be misled.

Shit, man. Unrequited love is just the worst. It hurts.

"I like you, a lot... and I think it's worse than that."

you might also like...
Josh Ritter - Kathleen
Aqualung - The Lake
Faces - Ooh La La

Top 100: #45

Number 45: Rilo Kiley - A Man/Me/Then Jim
Album: More Adventurous, 2004.
Added 5/22/09, 49 plays.



Three tales of love lost, from three narrators, telling two stories. The first and last is of how Jim killed himself when he lost Diana, and how that makes others think about the losses in their own lives. Jim tell her, explicitly, that he would die for her, then makes good on it. But he also touches on something that I hear pretty often in music (and life), that of losing oneself in a relationship, to be so completely enamored as to forget all else. I think that's fine for some people, and in fact, it's a great feeling... just not for the object of affection. Hence the rejection, hence the follow-through on the ultimatum.

Someone once said that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I wonder if they ever got their heart stomped on.

you might also like...
Bright Eyes - You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Stars - Calendar Girl
Regina Spektor - The Flowers

Top 100: #46

Number 46: Tegan and Sara - The Con
Album: The Con, 2007.
Added 7/25/07, 49 plays.


The Con

Tegan and Sara | MySpace Music Videos

Yes, this is one of the more pathetic and desperate breakup songs out there. Yes, I've written to an ex when I knew I shouldn't have.

Sad, sad, sad. I don't even want to think about this anymore.

you might also like...
Metric - Gimme Sympathy
Death Cab for Cutie - No Sunlight
Bright Eyes - Lover I Dont Have To Love

Top 100: #47

Number 47: Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Album: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2007.
Added 5/21/07, 48 plays.



Isaac Brock said it best, "I wanna make a pop band, ya know?" And yes, he certainly did that with this album. It's about the end of a relationship, and I paraphrased him once when I told a woman I loved who told me we were doomed, "Well, gee, I guess I better enjoy this while I can." She smiled, and said I was cheating. Maybe I was.

We scheme, and we scheme, but we always blow it.

Even needs have needs.

you might also like...
Beck - Girl
The Strokes - Last Nite
Pixies - Where Is My Mind?

Top 100: #48

Number 48: Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Album: Vampire Weekend, 2008.
Added 12/16/07, 48 plays.



Okay, two Vampire Weekend songs in a row, I will apologize for that. How embarrassing. So... A-Punk. Not really my favorite song, and it's been written about to death at this point, and I'm not good enough of a writer to call it "a little too uptempo to let their disarmingly clever melodies breathe", like Alex Denny did, so I'll just call it a catchy, harmless little pop song and not think about it any more.

you might also like...
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Spoon - The Underdog
Tegan and Sara - Back in Your Head

Top 100: #49

Number 49: Vampire Weekend - One (Blake's Got a New Face)
Album: Vampire Weekend, 2008.
Added 1/31/08, 48 plays.



From what I can discern, it's about being young, wealthy, and arrogant. There's a small scene in a coffee shop when the waitress mixes up the narrator's tea, but that's about it. I'm not going to apologize for all the Vampire weekend on this blog, their debut album was catchy as hell.

you might also like...
Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook
Ra Ra Riot - Each Year
Death Cab for Cutie - Cath...

Top 100: #50

Number 50: Aimee Mann - 31 Today
Album: @#%&*! Smilers, 2008.
Added 6/5/08, 46 plays.



A great sad track about getting older and being dissatisfied with your place in life. She takes up with a man she's not in love with, drinks by herself, mostly eats takeout, and ignores birthdays. A great sad song.

you might also like...
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Lucinda Williams - Are You Alright?
Josh Ritter - Still Beating

Top 100: #51

Number 51: Andrew Bird - Imitosis
Album: Armchair Apocrypha, 2007.
Added 12/22/07, 46 plays.



Yesterday religion as a metaphor, today, biology. The meat of the song deals with how romantic love and intimacy can be... misinterpreted? An illusion? Something that sometimes has to be verified. As much as I hate growing apart, I love that Andy hit the nail on the head when he referred to it as mitosis. Awesome melody.

Sometimes we don't have what we think we do.

you might also like...
Bon Iver - Flume
Iron & Wine - Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Top 100: #52

Number 52: Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - The Big Guns
Album: Rabbit Fur Coat, 2006.
Added 9/1/09, 45 plays.



Ah yes, the girl from The Wizard Rilo Kiley makes good. Here she's using quasi-religious imagery to describe a troubled relationship. I dig the country feel, the kind of old-timey Americana all over this album. Jenny's got a hell of a set of pipes.

you might also like...
M. Ward - One Hundred Million Years
She & Him - This Is Not a Test
Cat Power - Willie

Top 100: #53

Number 53: Phoenix - 1901
Album: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, 2009.
Added 7/6/09, 45 plays.



I have no idea what this song is about, I only know that it's catchy as hell. I kinda like Lisztomania better.

you might also like...
Passion Pit - Little Secrets
The xx - Islands
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

Top 100: #54

Number 54: Bell X1 - Rocky Took a Lover
Album: Flock, 2006.
Added 11/26/09, 44 plays.




Some great lines in this love song, but that's not why I basically just put this on repeat when I first heard it. There's just something in the melody, the hook just grabs you and will not let go. That being said, the lyrics are fantastic; I've used the opening line several times now ("what a wonderful way to wake me").

Jesus, this is an amazing love song.

you might also like...
Josh Ritter - Wolves
Damien Rice - Dogs
The Raveonettes - Dead Sound

Top 100: #55

Number 55: Lucky Soul - Struck Dumb
Album: The Great Unwanted, 2007.
Added 9/1/09, 44 plays.



I dig Lucky Soul's vibe, in the style of '50s girl doo-wop bands. On the surface, this is similar to those old love songs, about being so enamored with someone you can't find the words to talk to them. That's the chorus. But looking at the verses, there's some real pain here, and not necessarily the good kind. "Don’t let your guard down, the magic don’t touch when you curl into a small ball and cry"? "silent survival has brilliant thoughts turning grey on arrival"? That's some pretty dark and depressing stuff, all over the ridiculously sweet backing of that old soul.

you might also like...
The Pipettes - ABC
She & Him - In the Sun
The Brunettes - Her Hairagami Set

Top 100: #56

Number 56: Billy Bragg - A New England
Album: Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, 1983.
Added 8/20/07, 43 plays.



We all deal with breakups in our own ways. I'm sure at some point, we all feel like this:

I don't want to change the world,
I'm not looking for a new England.
I'm just looking for another girl.

It's a very simple song, with only the guitar and Billy's voice, but that just serves to drive the point home. We all get angry.

you might also like...
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Accidents Will Happen
Tom Waits - Downtown Train
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?

Top 100: #57

Number 57: David Byrne & Brian Eno - Strange Overtones
Album: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, 2008.
Added 8/20/08, 43 plays.



It's about an aging rocker trying to make a hit. It's catchy as all hell. Brian Eno just had all these beats he'd been doing nothing with for twenty years, and David Byrne writes some lyrics, and bam, instant hit. Good driving song.

you might also like...
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
St. Vincent - The Strangers
Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook

Top 100: #58

Number 58: M. Ward - Chinese Translation
Album: Post-War, 2006.
Added 4/18/08, 43 plays.



This was a pretty important song in my life. I was a freshman in college, didn't know a whole lot of people, and didn't know a whole lot of music outside of classic rock. My sister sent me this, and it was all over for me; I was now an indie kid. First thing I noticed were the visuals, the gorgeous animation and clever jokes in the video. But when I sat down and really listened to it, I just fell madly in love with it (I must have listened to this hundreds of times, but it's low on the list because I replaced it with a higher-quality version two years ago).

I wrote a little bit ago about universal truths, but mostly applied that to common experiences in love and loss. This is probably the most philosophical song in my catalogue, one that deals with finding the some of those truths.

What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
And how can a man like me remain in the light
And if life is really as short as they say
Then why is the night so long

Those are questions I've asked myself. No, I don't have the answers, and that's kind of the joke of the song. The wise old man doesn't know either, so he tells the story of how he tried to find those answers, and so on and so on. I think we know what's going to happen to the narrator of the story.

Which says nothing about the almost ethereal composition of this piece. Matt's guitar work is almost magical on this, over a great steady beat. Borderline magical.

I would be remiss if I didn't share his performance on Letterman. It picks up at the end:


There are no answers, there is only infinity.

you might also like...
Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars
Cat Power - Lived in Bars
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice on You

Top 100: #59

Number 59: Nicole Atkins - Maybe Tonight
Album: Neptune City, 2007.
Added 2/20/08, 43 plays.



Soaring vocals, heartfelt lyrics, dreamy atmosphere, wistful intentions. Ah yes, the reunion of two lovers. She's trying hard to be patient for the two to re-kindle, and maybe it worked out for a while, but things are doomed here. She comes around to it at the end though. Gorgeous song.

you might also like...
The Bird and the Bee - My Love
Basia Bulat - In the Night
Sia - Electric Bird